Terms of Reference for Midterm Project Evaluation

TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR MIDTERM PROJECT EVALUATION

Summary

1.About Chance for Childhood

 We are child centred international non-governmental organization supporting children and young people in Africa who face inequalities such as lack of access to education and safe spaces, providing them with the tools and skills they need to build their own futures.

We don’t work alone. Together with partners, supporters, children, and their communities, we protect, educate, and create lasting change for every child threatened by violence, neglect and conflict.

We believe that no child should have to fight for a safe, happy childhood. We exist to ensure that every child in Africa can thrive from their early years through to adulthood. Our interventions in Africa are in Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

2. Project background 

This project was designed and implemented in the context of strengthening the communities following the National Childcare Reform Strategy endorsed by the government of Rwanda in 2012. The aim of the strategy is to set-up and strengthen a national child protection system that provides optimum protection to all children. The implementation mechanism for the Child Care Reform Strategy is the Tubarerere Mu Muryango (TMM) programme (‘Let’s raise children in families’) that was implemented starting from 2013 with the goal of reintegrating children living in institutions and transform Rwanda’s childcare and protection system into a family-based system of care.

After some years of the implementation, an evaluation of the TMM program revealed that children with disabilities were still residing in institutions. As well, it was realised that children with disabilities are largely excluded from family life and from different services including education and special health care.

The impact of discrimination against children with disabilities is to deny them access to basic services and opportunities such as education or healthcare, play, family life, participation, adequate standards of living, as well as protection from neglect, abuse and violence. In addition to children’s individual vulnerabilities, poverty is also a critical underlying factor leading to institutionalization: children coming from poor families are more likely to end-up in institutions, because the families are not able to afford all the costs necessary to access basic services like education, health and daily care. This was also confirmed during a situation analysis conducted in 2018 by Chance for Childhood, where some parents emphasized the need for additional support to care on their children.

To respond to the need for inclusive family-based care and protection of children with disabilities, UNICEF in partnership with Chance for Childhood is supporting Government to model the project entitled “Community-Based Integrated Support to Children experiencing Disabilities and Families in Huye and Bugesera districts” with an aim to come up withreplicable, scalableand sustainable practices thathelp to address challenges identified in families and communities in the two districts.

The foundation of the project lies on four project outputs:

Project output 1:

An integrated package of quality mainstream and disability-specific services in, WASH, child protection and social protection are developed and tested in two districts.

Project output 2:

Parents/caregivers and communities are provided with skills, knowledge and capacity for a more inclusive society to safeguard and care for children with disabilities

Project output 3:

Policy and coordination are improved to support children with disabilities including the documentation of the integrated model to support national scale up

Project output 4:

Effective and efficient project management Each of the outputs has a set of performance indicators, totalling 17 performance indicators for the entire project.

3. About the Assignment

3.1 Project Mid-term Evaluation

In order to learn from this project model experience, CfC is looking for a consultant to evaluate the project and produce a 20-page (maximum) report. The evaluation will take place in both Bugesera and Huye districts for a maximum of 30 days, during December 2024 and January 2025. The consultant is expected to evaluate how the project has performed against the pre-defined performance indicators across the 4 project outputs. The evaluation should answer the following evaluation criteria:

Effectiveness: To what extend did the project meet expected results?

Relevance: To what extend did the project address community needs in Huye and Bugesera districts and responded to children with disabilities’ special needs?

Efficiency: did the project make optimum use of resources to deliver value for money, and is it affordable for national scale-up?

Coherence: How the project was aligned with national policies, strategies and programs?

Sustainability: How the initiated activities are likely to last in a post project period?

It is expected that the consultant will determine how effectively the project has improved the well-being, protection, and inclusion of children with disabilities in terms of access to clean water, sanitation, child protection services, and social safety nets. It will assess changes in their quality of life and inclusion into their communities.

The evaluation will also assess the extent to which families have benefited, such as through better access to social protection services, enhanced support networks, and improved ability to care for their children.

The evaluation will also examine whether this integrated approach led to better outcomes compared to isolated interventions and whether the combined services effectively addressed the comprehensive needs of children with disabilities and their families.

The consultant is also expected to identify the key challenges encountered during project implementation and document lessons learned that can inform future interventions addressing community barriers that face children with disabilities and their families.

3.2. Objectives

Objective of this final project evaluation is to collect the data, analyse them and report the project achievements towards a strong inclusive community, ready to accommodate the needs of children with disabilities.

3.3. Target groups

Several stakeholders both internal and external to CfC have interest in the project evaluation. The consultant is expected to interact with them during the assignment as they have played a key role during the implementation:

3.4. Methodology

To respond to the above-mentioned deliverables, the consultant shall propose the methodologies to deliver high quality product. Preferably, mixed methodology combining both qualitative and quantitative methodologies is encouraged. The consultant should include in their application how they will conduct data collection, and what tools will be developed to collect both qualitative and quantitative data.

3.5. Ethical consideration

The consultant is expected to conduct the assignment in a professional way, considering that CfC has zero tolerance for any misconduct against the beneficiaries including children with disabilities. Therefore, the consultant should indicate in their application how they will protect the rights of the vulnerable population. This includes CfC policy of not exposing child’s face or any other over exposure. In any case, the consultant will seek the informed consent to the participants first before any data is collected.

3.6. steering committee

A Steering committee to oversee the whole processes of this midterm evaluation will be composed by UNICEF, NCPD, NCDA and Chance for Childhood staff. The consultant is expected to fulfil a common interest of the committee.

3.7. Phases and Deliverables

The project evaluation will proceed through three phases, and in each phase, consultant shall work on specific activities and deliverables as indicated by the following table:

4. Budget and application guidelines

The total budget for this consultancy is Seven million and five hundred thousand Rwandan Francs (RWF 7,500,000) which is inclusive of all related costs including 15% withholding tax.

Applicants are requested to provide a proposal in line with the details provided above.

5.Terms of payment

This should be discussed and agreed on during contract signing time. However, 10% of the total cost should be advanced upon signing and the remained should be paid upon completion of the assignment’s deliverables.

6. Key skills and Competence requirements

The consultant for the final project evaluation is expected to have the following competences:

• Experience in conducting similar assignments
• A demonstrated understanding of disability Inclusive development concepts both in Rwanda and globally
• Clear understanding of national and international disability related instruments and commitments
• Good skills in writing the evaluation reports
• Adherence to UNICEF and Chance for Childhood’s Values and child safeguarding policies
• Ability to operate under strict time limits and apply high production and technical standards for the purpose of maintaining high level of professionalism.
• Excellent organizational and time management skills.
• Be flexible and responsive to changes and demands.
• Be client oriented and open to feedback.

7. How to Apply:

Interested individual, company or group of suitable candidates are requested to submit their application via the email: apply@chanceforchildhood.org with subject line “Final evaluation for Community Based Integrated Support to Children with disabilities and their families project”, not later than the 13^th December 2024 at 5:00 pm Rwandan time. An eligible application file must be composed by the following documents:

• A motivation letter
• A detailed CV of consultant (s)
• Technical proposal, highlighting how the consultant is planning to deliver the assignment’s deliverables, and experience in similar assignments
• Sample of the previous work with three persons of contact as references
• Financial proposal with detailed budget breakdown

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted due to anticipated high volume of applications.

8. Safeguarding

Chance for Childhood promotes and upholds the principles of equal opportunities and its policies. Chance for Childhood has a zero-tolerance approach to any harm to, or exploitation of, a vulnerable adult or a child by any of our staff, representatives, or partners. Recruitment to all jobs at Chance for Childhood includes criminal record checks/police background check and the collection of relevant references. Safeguarding our beneficiaries is our top priority in everything we do. The successful candidate will therefore need to review, agree, and sign Chance for Childhood’s Global Safeguarding Policy (CPP) prior to starting the post.

 9. Prevention from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA)

The construction company and its employees, staff and/or subcontractors shall not be involved in any sexual exploitation or abuse. The construction company shall ensure that its employees, agents, contractors, and sub-contractors comply with the highest standards of moral and ethical conduct. Any incident of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse shall be reported to Chance for Childhood. Any failure by Construction company to take preventive measures against sexual exploitation or abuse, or to investigate allegations or take corrective action, shall constitute grounds for termination of the Agreement.

For the purposes hereof, the following definitions shall be used:

Sexual exploitation means any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially or politically from the sexual exploitation of another.

Sexual abuse means the actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions.

Done in Kigali 02/12/2024

Felicien Turatsinze

Country Representative